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Training Resource Solutions has joined the CCA Conference sponsors and exhibitors in 2022, and will feature at the exhibition, a valuable addition to the Conference interaction and discussion.

POP Education will join the lineup of fantastic sponsors at CCA’s 2022 Sydney Conference on 13-14 September 2022, and will feature at the Conference exhibition – a great opportunity to meet them in person.

This reading list from international corporate consultants McKinsey is worth a look, in part because it covers not just the usual management literature, and shows what various corporate, media and other leaders recommend.

John Quiggin, Professor at the School of Economics, The University of Queensland, expands on his presentation at CCA Annual Conference, explaining why the profit motive fails in education.

LinkedIn and Engagement Pods: What are they and how do they work?  Rodney Ferro from PN Digital explains (2019 Annual Conference Digital Content and Media Sponsor).

WDCi - Rio Solutions  (2019 Conference Gold Sponsor) recommends a way to enhance the student's online experience to help them complete their studies.

Read the speech by Rowen Cox, CEO, at the Name Launch of Atwea College (formerly WEA Hunter).

Libby Waring, Principal, City East College, writes an informative article on the importance of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for your business, how to use it to increase traffic to your website and improve your ROI.

Nick Hedges, founder and director of Resolve HR, expands on his presentation at the CCA 2018 Annual Conference, providing workplace advice to managers and business owners of small to medium businesses.

Riverina Community College explores the hidden causes of youth unemployment and the challenges society faces in finding realistic solutions.

Riverina Community College explores the hidden causes of youth unemployment and the challenges society faces in finding realistic solutions.

Evelyn Goodwin, CCA Manager VET Policy & Projects, reports on the VDC 2017 Conference.

Let’s Get Serious About Reducing Unemployment: We Need a National Training Policy that Gets Australians to Work.

We in the Australian community education sector face challenges from many sides. We need to pay attention to the requirements of government training funders and regulators, teach our students to become entrepreneurs, become entrepreneurs ourselves, keep our missions and visions intact, engage our communities and work out our “purpose”.

In the last two weeks, we have more news about the latest shameful behaviour of for-profit VET providers. Will it ever end? Below we list the latest news on five for-profit VET and higher education providers: Unique International College, Get Qualified Australia, Sage Institute, Careers Australia and Australian School of Management.

This is what happens when education becomes just another business – a commodity to be bought and sold, and loses its connection with social good and societal advancement.

It’s a salutary lesson in business models.  Rely on one source of funds for the majority of your funding – especially government funding, and you are at risk. Target vulnerable students in the search for profit, and it will catch up with you eventually.

Last July, Malcolm Turnbull’s Coalition ran its election campaign under the slogan “jobs and growth”, although announced no new training policies or programs. Instead, it promoted a $48 billion tax cut for business, part of which has partially been approved by Parliament.

Why won’t the issue of for-profit Australian vocational education and training (VET) go away, even with the long-awaited and much-welcomed replacement of the flawed loan program VET FEE-HELP with VET Student Loans?

An edited transcript of the keynote address delivered by Jeffrey Bleich at Universities Australia’s higher education conference in Canberra on 1 March, 2017.

On Friday 20 March, CCA Chair David Fuller and CEO Don Perlgut attended “Labor’s National Jobs and Skills Summit” in Canberra, with an introductory speech by the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten

CCA has reproduced a press release from SGS Economics because we believe that it gives the clearest indication yet that Australia’s “two stage economy” – Sydney/Melbourne, and all the rest – is a significant phenomenon that needs to be addressed urgently by policy makers. 

With the upcoming inauguration of Donald J. Trump as US President on January 20th, what “spill-over” impact will his presidency have on Australian vocational education and training (VET)?

During his recent visit to Malaysia David Fuller met with the community college sector representatives in Malaysia.  Community colleges in Malaysia are government-owned, run and operated, and there are currently 93 in operation.

Opening Address to the Community Colleges Australia Annual Conference, Sydney, by the Hon. John Barilaro, MP, NSW Minister for Skills (now Deputy Premier, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Skills and Minister for Small Business)

Joneen Troup,  Manager, Camden Haven Community College, reports on the national conference of the Australian Council for Social Service (ACOSS), Sydney,  17-18 November 2016.

Ted Nabung, CEO Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Community College, attended the national conference of the Australian Council for Social Service (ACOSS), held in Sydney on 17-18 November 2016.

New research shows that the most at-risk young people – including those who are homeless and have mental health issues – are increasingly being enrolled by private Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers to undertake their training.

Vocational training is crucial for both young Australians and the future of our economy, yet in recent years private providers who face little oversight or scrutiny have turned the sector upside down.

In late August I attended the conference of the Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET), the national peak body that represents the private for-profit vocational education and training (VET) registered training organisations (RTOs). Some 390 attendees travelled to cool Hobart, although I appeared to be the only person from the community education sector, along with a couple of not-for-profit organisation representatives. It was, thus, a strong representation from the private training sector, with a sprinkling of government policy makers and businesses that service the VET sectors.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham has foreshadowed further major changes to the troubled VET FEE-HELP loan scheme to rein in costs and tackle widespread abuse by unscrupulous providers.

But will these changes fix the problem? Or will they merely paper over the cracks of a system that is prone to abuse?

So what do Australia’s bank profits have to tell us about the weaknesses of Australia’s battered and messy vocational education and training (VET) sector?  As it turns out, a great deal.

Gavin Moodie, Adjunct Professor, RMIT University, discusses the UK plan to reform English vocational education and its implications for Australia.

"Vocational courses have traditionally been seen as of lower value and held in lower esteem than academic education." Liz Atkins, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK, discusses the issues around perceptions of vocational education and training.

A just-released report from the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research (NCVER), entitled VET Provider Market Structures: History, Growth and Change, provides up-to-date numbers on why community education still matters to Australia.

Leading up to the federal election in July, Australian vocational education (VET) has entered the political debate. In the following article, CCA CEO, Dr Don Perlgut, argues that the most cost-effective VET policy initiative is to reinvigorate the community education providers and build on their capacity.

"Australia's vocational education sector is a mess" comments Mary Leahy, Academic at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, as she reviews the key issues facing the sector.

Serena Yu, Senior Research Analyst and Damian Oliver, Leading Research Analyst at the University of Sydney, look at how private providers who face little oversight or scrutiny have turned the vocational education and training sector upside down.

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